Computer networking, recording studios, radio and television networks employ elaborate systems for connecting and routing circuits for monitoring, interconnecting, and testing circuits in a convenient, flexible manner. These networks commonly include patch panels, network switches, network servers, and patch cords to connect them.
Patch panels, also known as patch bays, patch fields, or jack fields, are well-known in the field of data communication systems. Patch panels are used commonly in computer networking, recording studios, radio and television for connecting and routing circuits for monitoring, interconnecting, and testing circuits in a convenient, flexible manner.
A patch panel generally provides a plurality of network ports incorporated into a single structural element that connects incoming and outgoing lines of a local area network (LAN) or other communication, electronic or electrical systems. Patch panels are usually housed within a telecommunications closet or in an alternate location appropriate for patching cables, such as the server room in an office. Typical patch panels are mounted hardware units that include a plurality of port locations, commonly twenty-four or forty-eight, which function like a static switchboard, using cables to interconnect the computers associated with the LAN and/or to connect computers to an outside network, e.g., for connecting to the Internet or other network.
In its most basic sense, a patch panel helps organize the plurality of cables that are to be connected to the LAN, Internet, or other network, by acting as a coupler and creating a fixed point for the cables from remote network devices/stations to come back to and terminate on. Using patch cables connected to the local network switch, network access can be extended to the remote network devices/stations by being plugged into the various ports of the patch panel(s). This increases efficiency of operation, increases security for the network, and management of the system.
A network switch, or switch, is connected to a patch panel port by using a patch cable, or a plurality of patch cables when connecting multiple ports. The network switch is where the signals to and from the remote network devices are connected to the rest of the network.
Patch panels and switches are routinely mounted in what is known as an equipment rack, which permit multiple patch panels and network switches to be organized in a vertical manner. The rack configuration permits wires or cables, e.g., unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cables, coming from remote network stations to be wired to insulation-displacement connectors (IDCs) positioned on the back face of the patch panel, and couples those wires or cables to ports on the front face of the patch panel. This allows the incoming wires or cables to be organized by the ports of a patch panel so that a network administrator can connect specific remote network stations to a network switch using patch cables. Typical patch panels are substantially planar, extending backward on a horizontal plane on one level of the rack. Wires or cables incoming from remote network stations located throughout a building are routed to IDCs at the rear of the patch panel and wired to the patch panel. Patch cables are then routed to the corresponding jack or port on the front face of the patch panel, and then routed to the network switch, thus connecting the remote network station device to the LAN, Internet, or other network.
Because there will need to be at least one patch cord for every remote network device that needs to connect to the LAN, Internet, or other network, the number of patch cables needed for a medium to large office can be in the hundreds, or more. For cable management purposes, elaborate vertical and horizontal cable management trays are often used. Horizontal wire management is used to keep the front of the rack looking clean. Horizontal wire management trays connect to the rack in the same manner a patch panel or switch is attached. They usually are position in the rack between the patch panels and the switches. Cables are often routed between a network switch and patch panel via a horizontal wire management tray. Some racks will have multiple patch panels and switches and require vertical wire management trays in addition or in place of horizontal management trays. Vertical wire management trays are connected to the sides of a rack. Tracing patch cables from the patch panel to the network switch, however, can be a time consuming and difficult process. Sometimes it becomes necessary to replace network switching equipment when upgrading to stay current with industry trends or when hardware failure occurs. When this takes place all patch cables on the switch need to be removed. In many cases, special port configurations are in place on the switch specific to the remote network device connected to it. This adds an extra level of complexity and time constraint when replacing switches and requires that each patch cable be tagged and labeled so that it can be reconnected to the same port and be provisioned with the same applicable settings. The challenge of tracing patch cables, tagging them and removing them from the switch adds time and decreases efficiency of the process when removing a network switch The challenge of identifying and locating tagged patch cables from the previous step and reconnecting them to a replacement switch can be very time consuming and an opportunity for reconnection errors to occur. Many times network administrators are under a time constraint to get the network back online resulting in patch cables getting quickly re-patched to the switch with no regard for neatness or future manageability of the rack. This results in patch cables being intertwisted together and harder to separate or trace out ultimately causing additional downtime down the road with future switch upgrades or when future hardware failure occurs. Additionally, a planned network outage may be scheduled afterhours where the network administrator has sufficient time to correct the cabling mess and properly re-patch everything in a clean and professional manner.
Although wireless technologies can reduce the cable clutter hidden behind many desks, server rooms remain a haven for power cords, patch cords, network cables, and peripheral wiring. Unfortunately, many server rooms are built with little or no regard for cable organization, which can quickly escalate out of control into a cabling nightmare that can take far too long and consume too many resources to organize.
Unmanaged patch cables not only look unsightly, but they become highly susceptible to becoming twisted and crushed, both of which can prevent data signals from being properly transmitted. Tangled network cables can also make troubleshooting and maintenance tasks a nightmare. Because patch cables can be extremely difficult to identify and isolate, searching for the right cable to fix a problem can greatly increase the downtime to fix the problem.
Sometimes these problems arise because getting a server room up and running requires a massive rush; sometimes it's just careless management, sometimes the mess builds over time getting slightly worse with each alteration until it's too late. Sometimes a network installer rushes through a job because they will not be the person managing the server room once set up, and therefore they aren't considering or preparing for the efficiency of later work. Disorganization can also happen during routine adds, moves, and changes, as cables need to be re-routed, or when adding new employees or additional network devices to a network. No matter how it happens, a tangled mess of network cables can become a problem requiring many hours and a lot of patience to go back and fix; during which time the network, and productivity, will be down.